Who would have known that bringing in an active defector during a Chūnin Exams would have been kicked up the chain? Probably anyone with half a brain, Tobio included. But he wanted to imagine a more peaceable, kinder world where he didn't have to deal with the rightful consequences of his actions.

  This was not that world.

  There were suddenly an awful lot of high-ranking shinobi barking orders at them, specifically oriented toward getting them into a nice, private space. Saddled in a waiting room, it wasn't long before Tekuno-sensei showed up, a tired-looking expression on his face. It was the kind expression that a parent wore when they just walked into news that their child was responsible for something exceedingly destructive, and now they had to pay for it. Ami, Hibachi, Karin, and Tobio were sitting there, with the first three looking nervous. Tobio did his best to look about as pcid and innocent as possible.

  Staring at the three nervous Genin, and an unrepentant fourth, Tekuno let out a long sigh. "…Whose idea was this?"

  Instantly, everyone's hands were pointing to Tobio.

  He gasped. "Betrayal!"

  "It was literally your idea, Tobio!" Ami yelled. "Now they're all giving us the side-eye!"

  "People defect! Sometimes! It could have been a group effort to decide to try and poach Karin."

  The bespectacled girl blinked. "I'm still right here."

  "True, but you also betrayed me. Nobody said you had to join these traitors in giving me the finger."

  She scoffed in turn, gncing away from him silently.

  As usual, Tekuno cpped his hands when their bickering hit the professionalism limit. "Alright, alright, I'm gonna need Tobio, and Uzumaki-san with me. Right now."

  "Are we going somewhere?" Karin asked, worried, as she stood up, Tobio alongside her.

  "Yeah, you could say that," Tekuno nodded. "If you're really keen on defecting, then we need to go see the Hokage. Thankfully, he's here at the moment. And he's also gonna have to speak to Tobio, seeing as he was the architect of this whole thing."

  Well, this wasn't exactly unexpected. Everything had a price, and he'd gone way outside of the remit of a typical genin with his actions. "…Fair. Fine, let's go face the music."

  Tekuno gave him an approving nod over his shoulder, before turning back around to lead the two children elsewhere in the building. "Come on."

  Moving through winding halls of the tower, it didn't take long before they'd reached their destination. Tobio sensed the Hokage long before he saw him, though. If only by the sheer and total absence of a lot of the emotional instability that he'd been used to getting from most children and shinobi.

  Hiruzen was a cool ke. Someone who wasn't a sage, or enlightened, but had a much tighter grasp on his sense of self and emotions than most people. Then again, how could you ever hope to master a vilge if you couldn't master yourself? Tobio was sure that the man still had some blindspots, or fws, but with age came a masterful sort of refinement of your emotional range that most children cked. Even so...

  He hadn't been in the same room as the Hokage in months, and it still made his teeth go on edge. There wasn't any one thing that made him tense and nervous, admittedly. It was just the entire spectrum of danger-sensing abilities he possessed, constantly keeping him aware of just how deadly the kindly old man was every time he looked at the Mixed Blood. No matter how innocuous the room they'd been led into seemed, or how innocent the old man was seated in the spare office, totally rexing just wasn't possible for the boy. Not around Hiruzen, with what he knew and felt.

  Currently, it was just Tekuno-sensei, Tobio, Karin, and Hiruzen in the room. Not that Tobio didn't remotely believe there were some ANBU within a moment's notice, waiting and watching their superior's meeting. Gncing over at Tekuno-sensei, too, it was hard to tell if he was going to find an ally here in his teacher, considering the line he'd crossed.

  His sensei's face might as well have been made of stone, for how much it moved from the neutral state he had it in. Compared to the big man's normally expressive, smiling features, it was a little disorienting. Though given that they were being told to meet with the Hokage rather than the typical flowery nguage used for requests…

  Even Tobio wasn't such a social boor to ignore the fact that he'd, in part, committed a bit of a social fucky-wucky. He'd caused a possible diplomatic incident, and this was the price. If he could do it over, though, he'd still do it again. If Konoha wasn't the pce that he thought it was, well, Tobio would make it the ideal vilge he hoped for, brick by brick. And the Kami help anyone who would get in his way.

  "You've put me into something of a predicament, Tobio-san," the older man sighed, taking a long drag from his pipe, as he closed his eyes. "On one hand, you have a spotless record of while admittedly foolhardy, successful actions. You're an exempr of your generation, with burgeoning skills in nearly every field of our profession."

  Tobio blinked in surprise, a little taken aback. He was an exempr? Him? In the abstract, he could see the case being made for perhaps his own skills being retively sterling, but Tobio had just...never really thought of himself that way. Then again, he was also the type of person to fight tooth and nail about being tagged with the title of 'prodigy'. With the utter grinder that any above-average ninja got tossed into from Konoha, in the name of maintaining their superiority, it wasn't a particurly enviable title in his eyes.

  ...But objectively, Hiruzen was telling the truth. There were some things that Tobio wasn't all that good at, but he knew a startling amount of jutsu for a Genin, combined with a bloodline limit and a terrifying rate of skill acquisition. From the outside looking in, he was the very definition of the word exempr.

  Taking another drag of his pipe, Hiruzen exhaled, allowing the smoke to drift upward. All the while, it felt as if Tobio was waiting for the sword to drop. There had to be, for all of this buildup.

  The Hokage gestured to Karin, who was doing her level best not to freak out, but still twitched at the man pointing his pipe at her. "Even now, your Will of Fire is incandescent, to reach out to a descendant of our allies suffering under the yoke of foreign oppression."

  Gncing toward the redhead full on, Hiruzen gave her a congenial smile. "I can say wholeheartedly that the Hidden Leaf would be honored to welcome a member of the Uzumaki, if you truly are a member of that august Cn."

  Tobio felt his heart break a little as the tension melted out of Karin's posture, disbelief spreading across her features. "...Really?"

  "Of course," Hiruzen nodded. "Our Hidden Vilge owes much to the Uzumaki, and sheltering one of their own in our vilge is no hardship. I do believe we even still have specific Uzumaki properties avaible for Cn ownership, once your status is verified."

  If the news that she was going to be accepted into Konoha was mind-blowing, the knowledge that she theoretically owned property blew her mind. "W-What? There's gotta be a catch, right?"

  "There is, but it's one I imagine you'd want to pay regardless," Hiruzen smiled. "Loyalty to Konoha, naturally. But we, unlike what you may not be used to, do not ask our shinobi to sacrifice unduly."

  Tobio did his best to try to keep his face straight while the Hokage gave a perhaps, coddling, framing of Konohagakure's internal policy. If the old man wanted to sell this to Karin all the more, well, he wasn't going to stop him. Karin seemed to want to hope, all the same, and compared to her conditions in Kusagakure…

  What did she have to lose?

  "Then…I accept," she smiled, trying to fight off tears of sheer joy, anxiety, or optimism.

  [HIDDEN QUEST COMPLETED: MAKE A BLOODLINE HOLDER DEFECT TO THE HIDDEN LEAF.][REWARD: 1x MODERATE DOMINION PERK.]

  [QUEST COMPLETED: REACH THE PRELIMINARIES.][REWARD: CHOICE OF 1x MODERATE ARTIFICE, ERUDITION, MIGHT, OR DOMINION PERK.]?

  On one hand, incredibly radical gains. He was already chomping at the bit to see what kind of perk he'd roll. But unfortunately, it seemed as if the warm and fuzzies were over with, as Hiruzen was turning Tobio's way. The grandfatherly man's smile was fading away, as his expression fttened out and focused on Tobio entirely.

  It was all the boy could do not to squirm underneath his regard.

  "As for you, Tobio, I suspect the situation is far more complex. Even with your potential, you've forced me into something of a corner to deal with the offense that Kusagakure will inevitably take from this," Hiruzen expined, his eyes boring into Tobio's own. "What do you think I should do in such a situation? With a shinobi who enacts their own impromptu missions, without sanction from the vilge?"

  That threw him for a loop, because genuinely, Tobio didn't have the faintest clue. Looking at his sensei for a hint wasn't helping matters either, as the man wasn't giving anything away. Which meant that the boy had to navigate this politically fraught conversation all by himself.

  "I believe," Tobio began, rolling his wrist at his sides to bleed off some of his anxious energy. "That there's a heavy-handed and light-handed approach to how you could take this."

  "Mm?"

  "Light-handed would be a sp on the wrist, and letting me go my way," he admitted, which was also what Tobio was kind of hoping for. If Naruto got away with all those pranks, surely Tobio could get off with basically a stern dressing down.

  Taking another puff of his pipe, Hiruzen nodded. "That's true. And if I chose to be firmer in my dealings? Less willing to let things slide?"

  "Probably forcing my team to drop out of the exams at this moment," Tobio grimaced. "Putting us on scutwork, stuff like that."

  Ideally, Hiruzen wouldn't do anything like that, if only because Tobio was really looking forward to being promoted. But he did go above and well beyond his rank, promising things he didn't have the authority to promise. The fact that his Hokage was so willing to give it to them was more of a blessing than anything else.

  "Those are some salient points, though in this situation, I believe I'm going to split the difference," Hiruzen breathed out, straightening his posture. "Thus, I'll have to inflict the effective punishment that will also end up protecting you."

  "...Whuh?" What the hell was this old geezer talking about?

  There was an amused glint in Sarutobi's eyes, as his lips curved into the faintest ghost of a smile. "Protecting one lone shinobi from the consequences of their actions is a politically fraught task. But if said ninja was, in fact, the heir of his own cn…"

  Tobio squinted at the man's face in confusion. "But I don't have a-Oh!"

  Oh, that clever bastard.

  "I see you get it," Hiruzen smiled, looking far more smug than he ought to have. "Provided you want the hassle of running your own Cn."

  Tobio didn't see anything wrong with it, admittedly, even if it'd be something of a hassle at first. Having political power in the vilge, especially when his Elixir started to become well-known, could only be a benefit. There were a lot of things about the Hidden Leaf that he didn't mind, but there was just as much that he didn't care for when it came to the governance of their military dictatorship.

  With this, he'd have the power to genuinely change them. If it wasn't for his bloodline, he knew full well this option would never have been extended to Tobio. Not anytime soon, anyway But the political realities were what they were, and Hiruzen was a canny enough individual to roll with the punches as they came. A more cynical side of himself noted that it'd also be another thing tying Tobio down to the vilge in a more visceral way.

  "I don't know what running a Cn even entails," Tobio admitted. "But…I'm not opposed to giving it a shot."

  Hiruzen hummed softly. "Mostly? A great deal of paperwork that I'm sure your sensei will be happy to help with."

  A small choking sound escaped Tekuno, as his eyes reflected a small amount of panic. "H-Hokage?"

  "Well, legally speaking, Kanden-san is the closest thing you have to a legal guardian. So it's natural he'd help out, yes?" Hiruzen sent the man a gnce that was full of meaning, before Tekuno defted under the look.

  "...Yes, Hokage-sama." He had the look of a man who had just realized that his immediate future was going to be filled with nothing but paperwork.

  "As for you, Uzumaki-san," Hiruzen shifted, gncing at the redhead who'd been watching their back and forth with wide eyes. "Would you be willing to talk to one of my personnel? They'll merely be asking some questions to facilitate your smooth transition into the vilge."

  Reading between the lines, Tobio figured that she was going to be lightly grilled for as much actionable intel as she might have had on Kusagakure. Which, if he was being honest, sounded perfectly acceptable to him. In her shoes, he would have been plotting active malfeasance against the Hidden Grass.

  Or maybe she would take a personal hand in that when she'd gotten more settled in. Tobio would be more than happy to pitch in with highly destructive pnning operations on behalf of a resurgent Uzumaki Cn.

  She did shoot him a brief, worried gnce before Tobio smiled back. "It probably won't take long, Karin. I'll see if I can come see you after this stage of the exams is done, alright?"

  Those words were enough to bolster her confidence, and she smiled at him back. "Y-Yeah. So, where am I headed…?"

  In a shimmer of movement Tobio could barely track, a masked ANBU-nin appeared in the room, who Hiruzen gestured to. The man wore an eborately painted bird mask, though still in the same stylings as all the other ANBU Tobio had ever seen. "This is Crane. He'll be escorting you, if you would…?"

  Shooting Tobio a final gnce back, the redhead and her escort left the room, with Hiruzen taking a stand from his perch on the nearby crate. "With that out of the way, young man, I'd say that our business is more or less concluded. I'm sure you'd like to regroup with your team and properly prepare for the rest of the exam?"

  Having gotten to the tower early, they'd be insane if they didn't. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

  "Then I'm sure you and your sensei have quite a bit to catch up on, hmm?" Giving the boy a final smile, and a nod at Tekuno, Hiruzen left the room, leaving Tobio and Tekuno alone at st.

  The two of them stared at each other for a little bit, Tekuno's face a firm mask, until it broke into a relieved smile. "That…went a lot better than I was expecting!"

  Tobio blinked. "How did you expect it to go?"

  "I genuinely had no idea," the rger man fully admitted. "It's been quite some time since we've had a defection of a kekkei genkai into the vilge, let alone a famous one, and during an event like this."

  "So…I didn't screw up everything for everyone?"

  "No, no. I mean, if you'd stolen them away from a major Hidden Vilge, maybe we'd have more problems," Tekuno admitted, grimacing at the thought. "But seducing an Uzumaki away from Kusa? They'll grumble and compin, but what are they going to do? Say they were using and abusing the descendant of one of our greatest allies willfully, and hiding them from us?"

  "It wasn't a seduction!" Tobio protested, blushing softly.

  His sensei gave him a judging stare, and Tobio had to fight the urge to try and fidget underneath it. "...Are you sure? She was looking at you…well, whatever. You're a little too young to be thinking about those kinds of missions anyway."

  "I saved her in the forest and treated her with basic human kindness. It was really that easy."

  "And that, my trouble-prone student, is why Konohagakure is the best vilge. We're just that good at seduction to make it effortless." He tried to tune out his sensei's words there.

  "So…we're good?"

  "Absolutely not, but I'll get my revenge for the bureaucratic shitshow you've mired me in ter," Tekuno admitted, smiling congenially. "How'd you know she was an Uzumaki, anyway?"

  This was a question that Tobio had been dancing around, and had the relevant parties involved in his deception coached in. He didn't know if it'd stand up to T&I, but it didn't need to. It just needed to pass the initial sniff test so that nobody would be looking deeper into the story.

  "Well, you know I've got an eidetic memory, right?"

  "I'm painfully aware, yes."

  "I read a lot about bloodlines when it became obvious I had one, and ran into some stuff about the Uzumaki in the library. One of their most defining traits was their vibrant red hair, so when I saved her in the forest and introduced myself…"

  "You deduced that she too was a member of that Cn," his sensei finished, nodding along. "Smart. A bit of a risk, but if the bloodwork comes back positive, then you'll have nded a new kekkai genkai for the vilge on your record."

  "Is that a good thing?"

  The senior ninja shrugged, raising a hand and tilting it side to side in a 'so-so' gesture. "It's…important, I guess, for certain people who get really focused on that sort of thing. Granted, she's a cn of one right now, but the old fogies tend to take a long-term view of this sort of thing."

  That was a relief to him. "So they're not going to do like, anything weird, or make messed-up requests of her?"

  Tekuno paused, gncing away suspiciously. "Not right now. Maybe in a few years, though. Nothing you can't expect for yourself when you're eventually old enough to have kids," his sensei…evasively mentioned.

  "...What does that mean?"

  With a knowing look, his sensei turned around and left the room, Tobio jogging after him. "Sensei, get back here and expin yourself!"

  Tekuno did not, in fact, expin himself, not even when his wayward, panicked student was threatening him with appropriate levels of violence. But he was wearing a crooked grin as they finally met back up with the rest of his team.

  Ami and Hibachi were in their own private room, a privilege granted to all the teams. Though Tobio suspected it was more so they could all be carefully segregated from each other. It'd prevent between-test tampering to some degree, while also ensuring the secret techniques of other Hidden Vilges remained private.

  Not that his teammates had any relevant secret techniques, though. But it was the principle of the thing. Both of them looked up at they entered, relief flickering through their features.

  "What's the verdict? Is the team going to be alright?" Ami pressed.

  "Do you think sensei would be smiling if we weren't?" Hibachi pointed out.

  "No, but still! It could be like, we've got to drop out or something! After all this work!"

  Tekuno shook his head at that guess. "No, though Tobio's got a mountain of paperwork ahead of him that I'm unfortunately being dragged into."

  "Huh?" Ami blinked.

  "The Hokage wasn't sure if he had the political will or capability to protect a single genin," Tobio expined, taking mercy on his confused friend. "But the head of a new cn with a kekkai genkai is a different story."

  It was something that everyone knew was coming eventually, even if they didn't outright admit it. But saying it aloud to his friends made it real in a way that it hadn't been before. Tobio, after so long of being an orphan, was going to be someone. And that was frightening in it's own way, admittedly.

  He wasn't some canny political animal, with years of experience. No, Tobio was…quite literally, just some guy. But if it meant that he'd have a different kind of soft power at his disposal, though, he was eager to see what it brought him.

  "You're going to have your own Cn?" Hibachi asked, eyebrows raising. "Does that mean I can be a retainer and get my family a tax rebate?"

  "I like how that's the first thing you ask."

  "It's a serious question! Retainers have it made, dude."

  Tekuno cpped his hands, trying to get everyone's attention. "Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. We've still got a mountain of paperwork before we're even there, let alone petitioning the daimyo for permission."

  Tobio was a little surprised at those words. "Wait, we have to ask the daimyo for permission?"

  "Considering we 'answer' to him, yes, and the creation of a new cn gives you…well, I'd say it's a bit of a lesser noble title. Though that might change as time goes on, your numbers grow, or you have notable strategic assets to bring into the vilge."

  …For a few brief moments, he thought about mentioning his Elixir. But it wasn't the time to bring it up. Not yet, anyway.

  "I've got a more important question. Is there a spare room where I can be alone for a bit?" He asked, gncing over to Tekuno.

  "Any particur reason?"

  "I just…need a quick breather to myself," Tobio lied, like a liar. He wanted to open up his rolls, because they were burning holes in his metaphysical pockets.

  Ami clicked her tongue in irritation. "Really?"

  "Understandably, any man would need a break from Ami, so I get it," Hibachi nodded sagely, ughing when Ami reached out to sp his shoulder.

  "Shut up!"

  Rolling his eyes at their antics, Tekuno-sensei nodded at Tobio. "There's enough rooms here if you need a moment to yourself. Or if you need to run to the bathroom."

  Did he assume that was what Tobio wanted? Well, he wasn't going to dissuade him from that presumption, following after his sensei. It wasn't that long before he was left alone in what was a small, but blessedly private bathroom. Rough, yet good enough for Tobio's purposes as he slumped down to the ground.

  There was something to be said about the relief he felt about being wholeheartedly, earnestly, alone. Provided no one interrupted Tobio's little vigil in one of the private rooms of the tower, he could focus on situating his new perks without worry. The big thing was spinning through his rewards, and seeing if there was anything that could help in the upcoming fights.

  And if he got anything too crazy, well, he could say that it was something he didn't have a use for during the Forest of Death section. Gaslight, gatekeep, genin-boss weren't toxic; they were sensei-approved maneuvers to get out of awkward situations. Or avoiding inconvenient truths he wasn't ready to share with anyone.

  Either way, Tobio didn't see a point in pushing this off any further. If he got something that resulted in as much of a painful adaption as Calcium, he'd need the privacy to avoid anyone coming in to check on him. Without any further dey, the boy reached out in that familiar expanse of his soul and allowed the first of his possible rewards to flow inside of him.

  It was an easy pick to shoot for the Dominion perk first, since that didn't require nearly as much forethought.

  The Cloak of ShadowsWarhammer Fantasy: SkavenThe tool of the Deathmaster, woven from the hairs of Eshin's victims and an arachnarok queen's finest silk, steeped in the liquified shadow of an Eshin Sorcerer. The Cloak of Shadows is a tool and article of clothing, that can shroud and completely hide its wearer in shadows so thick he is invisible to all but magic sight. As well, the assassin who wears it finds that the shadows completely drown any sound he makes - even the shattering of stained gss is muffled until the shards ctter to the ground. It seems another of these legendary cloaks was made, and stolen, and stolen again, and stolen a third time until it came to you at st.

  An odd quality of the cloak is that as its wearer kills and kills again, it seems to grow in length - absorbing the shadows from his victims.

  Creation of FamiliarsFate/Faerie BritainYou are skilled in the creation of familiars—and not just one or two specific types, like most mages make use of, but any sort of familiar. Familiars can be imbued with their own Magic Circuits, allowing them to be used as a medium to cast spells; they also hold a connection to their master's mind, and mental communication is possible. It's even possible to outright take control of a soulless familiar, directing it with your mind while your body lies stationary. That often isn't necessary, however, as a familiar's connection to their master's mind means that they carry out their will even without special direction.

  Now, just about any half-decent mage can create a familiar. It's a simple spell commonly worked on small animals, dead animals, or small statuettes. But while you have surpassing talent in all areas involving familiars, where you excel is transforming items into them—including items of such power as Noble Phantasms or your own CP-purchased gear. Using such excellent material, the resulting familiar will be able to change form into the appearance of some manner of fantastic beast, grow or shrink in size for convenience, and will be much more powerful than any ordinary familiar could be, proportional to the strength of the artifact they are created from.

  Please note that while Ghost Liners can be considered a type of familiar, Servants are far too powerful and complex to actually create without magecraft on the same level the most advanced tier of Student of Mystery, and you'd have to possess appropriate components. But creating a Heroic Spirit out of a figure of legend or fiction that didn't make a strong enough impact on history to be recorded on the Throne of Heroes is technically possible.

  Energy SenseSailor MoonMana. Ki. Prana. Life energy. If it's a power that rests in a living being, you can sense it. You can detect someone's hidden potential in any skillset or magical power you possess. You can sense when someone has a hidden strength to them, unknown to even them. You can also sense when great bursts of energy happen within a distance around you simir in size to a rge city. This includes dramatic fshy fights involving the slinging of spells. This sense can eventually be extended to reach to the edges of the Sor System.Okay. He'd have to think about this.

  The first perk was interesting, in that The Cloak Of Shadows was an item that would grow in power with everyone killed by it's wielder. It didn't feel like gear that fit him, but it was widely useful in terms of like, boosting a stealth specialist to terrifying new levels.

  In addition, it was a strong contender for being further amped up by World Arts. What a Bance Breaker would look like for it, he didn't even remotely know. Still, that didn't make it any less feasible.

  Creation of Familiars was a weirder perk, even if he directly saw the usage for it. Familiars in the Nasuverse usually required someone to give up some magic circuits, blood, hair, something of themselves for their creation. Could he bypass that entire process, though, since his sword was literally a portion of his soul? Even stranger were the possibilities of bringing certain people back to life, though to make a Servant-tier Familiar, the costs would have been truly ruinous.

  What would even happen if he used it on his Zanpakutō? Would it create a separate entity, or allow the sword spirit to externalize itself way beyond schedule? There were a lot of questions, exciting ones, but it was also a tricky thing to expin away.

  …And then there was Energy Sense, which in time had the prospect to turn him into the greatest sensor that the world had ever seen. Hell, he'd be able to become a terrifyingly good talent scout, when it came to unpolished gems just waiting for someone to recognize their potential.

  It just wasn't as exciting, perhaps, in regard to the other options. That didn't mean it wasn't good. Decisions had to be made, though. And they had to be made now.

  Would this ever get less stressful?

  All of them were good in their own ways. It was just a matter of how much faith did he put into each option. That, and the fact of what he wanted most of all at the moment.

  Seeing as his tactics usually involved leaving no one alive to compin about his stealth skills, The Cloak Of Shadows was out. There would be no Skaven cospying this time around. Moving forward, he had to disqualify Creation Of Familiars for a simir reason.

  Nasuverse Magecraft and adjacent practices were massive time sinks. Great, very useful across the board, but research-intensive, no matter how much you wanted to beat around the bush. It just wasn't something he could fit into his life right now, even if the instant ally would have come in handy.

  Which left Energy Sense as the winning move. With a small sigh, he reached out and let it settle into his soul. And the moment he did, it felt like the world was expanding once more.

  Five Poisons Sense by itself only really reached out to a few meters around him, requiring Tobio to be close for it to reach full efficacy. But this was every shinobi's natural chakra sense amped up to the level of a sensor's capabilities. He felt the world bloom into focus around him, as tiny and rge bonfires of chakra rested into his periphery.

  It took him a moment to try and grapple with the new senses, yet if nothing else, he didn't think it was going to be easy to sneak up on him now. Not unless the assaint was an actual energy-bereft robot. Even puppets had some chakra in them, from the strings used to control them.

  Moving forward, how big was his range going to get…? It hinted at sor system-sized, but maybe that was just the perk gmorizing things. Tobio hadn't been the most familiar with Sailor Moon before, yet how crazy could it be?

  Either way, he still had more decisions to make. Specifically, what kind of category for free perk he wanted to take…

  Artifice perks were out. Even if he would have wanted to learn how to make stuff, or how cool that might have been, it just wasn't in the cards for the moment. He was going to have to find time to try and farm some of those perks, though. They were useful, even if he didn't always want to create stuff most of the time, ass opposed to breaking it.

  Dominion was out for simir reasons, if only because he'd gotten too many tely. Not that they weren't good, as evidenced by his current ability of recognizing where everyone in the building currently was. Which left the final choice between Might and Erudition.

  …Fuck it. He was already deadly enough. It was time to refine his existing capabilities, if he could roll the right Erudition perk.

  "Let's go gambling…" He murmured, as his soul expanded for the second time in a day.

  Signum LinguisticsSkulduggery PleasantAlso called Symbol Magic. It's one of China Sorrows' specialties. Harnesses a magical nguage to produce a wide variety of effects. Fairly unique in that it can be learned by anyone, even if they've already chosen their discipline. As such, this magic can be purchased regardless of how many others you've bought already, even without Multidisciplinary Magic.Mystic EyesLord El-Melloi Case FilesYou're still young, you don't have to live on your own achievements just yet, for now you need only prepare yourself. Helpfully, you've got an advantage right out of the gate in the form of some hereditary trait or mutation. Despite the name, this is not limited to mystic eyes, and also includes pure eyes and other unusual gifts, such as phantasmal ancestry, ESP, and the Fraga Cn's Traditional Carrier trait, though if you purchase multiple actual Mystic Eyes, Rail Zeppelin will be very interested in you. You may select any such ability that occurs or exists in the modern Age except Wish-granting and Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. This can be bought multiple times, but each time you buy it the price doubles.All As OneGuild Wars 2You learned how to merge two elements into one, effectively creating a new element for you to channel; merge water and earth to manipute pnts, lightning and fire to manipute psma, and many other combinations. Each new channeling mode has an equal number of possible skills to discover and learn, affording you unheard-of versatility.…Hmm.

  As always, he'd start from the top. Signum Linguistics was an odd one, from what he remembered of the book series it came from. It was the fundamental nguage of magic, not unlike seals, and could do all sorts of things like healing their wielder when power was poured into them, to communicating with other people who had paired signs.

  It was less exciting then Mystic Eyes, though, which would potentially hand him what were a pair of dōjutsu. If there was eyes on him before, good lord, they'd be lusting after his peepers when they got a load of some of the bullshit magic eyes from the Nasuverse. He wouldn't be able to get the really busted stuff, but there was still a lot going on elsewhere that would come in handy.

  All As One though, would grant him an unprecedented level of versatility. He would receive just about every elemental release in history, though Tobio wouldn't have any training in them. They'd all have to be trained over time, which presented itself as a truly awe-inspiring amount of time needing to train them up, or unlock their baseline elemental proficiencies that made up the combinations. That said…

  Fuck-motherin' Mokuton.

  Actually, someone would just outright decre war if that became publicly avaible. Danzo and Orochimaru's attention too, would be…uncomfortable, to say the least. Regardless of what he chose, though, he couldn't sit on these decisions forever. It was time to start cutting off the fat, and see what was left underneath.

  Signum Linguistics was out. Not that it was a bad perk, by any stretch of the imagination, but the other two offered were too appealing to Tobio by half. It just couldn't compete when put up against them.

  And as much as it pained him to admit it, All As One would probably have to go.

  It wasn't that it couldn't give him access to all sorts of powerful and unique elemental releases. No, that was a given, seeing as how the perk was described. The problem was that it would require an enormous amount of time and resources invested into the process to master the basic elements to the point where he was confident enough to start combining them.

  That was before you got into the complexities of making brand-new jutsu for each one, if he didn't have a teacher. Or the possibly very real danger of attracting attention he wasn't prepared for by manifesting something like the Mokuton. As much as it pained him to admit, it'd be exactly the type of perk that'd cause Tobio to spread himself a little too far.

  When all the other choices were pared away, the only thing that was left was Mystic Eyes. He'd possibly be damning himself and his descendants to be hunted for their magic eyeballs for all eternity, but that was a risk Tobio was willing to take. Dōjutsu were worth the risk, something just about every single ninja would admit to. The heritability would be, at best, a bit sketchy, or perhaps mutate, but what was another kekkai genkai to add to the pile? If the Uchiha and Uzumaki got such a bullshit number of powers, then it was only fair his future cn would too.

  The real question was what kind of eyes?

  He could feel his choice to select the perk stalled out, much like the original choice to select an Origin, along with a variety of special peepers for him to choose from. But the variety was dizzying.

  There were Mystic Eyes of Fme, that'd allow him to start and control fires with a gnce, or Eyes of Compulsion, which amped up his existing genjutsu capabilities to new heights. More besides, that he'd only tangentially heard of from the massive Nasuverse list of properties. But there was one in particur that caught Tobio's attention.

  The Mystic Eyes of Analysis weren't the fshiest or the most powerful by themselves, but the ability to see magic and the exact effects with a bit of training couldn't be overstated. He didn't need another sledgehammer in his toolkit, admittedly. Tobio needed a scalpel to cut to the heart of problems and compound his already prodigious learning speed.

  With that settled, Tobio pulled the metaphysical trigger on his decision. And then sat down to await the expected pain from changing his eyes on a metaphysical level. As always, the System didn't disappoint his expectations.

  Like any of the other perks he'd taken that altered his biology, the resulting process wasn't pleasant. If anything, Tobio would have been more worried if he hadn't already been used to the System's painful adjustments by this point. Now, it was just another off-kilter, wacky, magical addition to his Oni physique.

  What was another sign of inhumanity atop everything else?

  Gritting his teeth, he kept silent as he felt warmth blossom behind his eyes, before enveloping them wholly. It was as if he had a lit fire in his skull, as a new passage was being unconsciously carved with each passing second. All while his original eyes were being altered by the choice he'd made, cells breaking down and transforming into new, foreign uses as the moments slid by.

  By the time it was done, Tobio was breathing hard, sweat beading at his brow, as he felt the pain pass by to something of a dull throb. Eventually, even that would fade, leaving him to stand up and amble over to the sole mirror in the tiny bathroom. It was time to get a good look at what he'd had to suffer through.

  Looking at himself in the mirror, the difference in his eyes wasn't noticeable at first gnce. It was only when you looked at the shade of his iris that the changes were all that clear. Instead of the dark brown, average eyes he'd had before, Tobio's gaze was lighter. Closer to dark amber than anything else.

  In the back of his mind, though, there was something new. Almost like a channel, or some kind of pathway, that he could pour power into with an instinctive tensing of a new muscle. Just to test it out, he pushed chakra toward his eyes, and then had the singur delight of seeing them glow. They shifted from their new amber-like color to the molten hues of a hot forge.

  …It probably wasn't healthy for your eyes to feel warm either, but that just meant they were working. Compared to some of the things that could happen with Mystic Eyes of Analysis, like them set magically alight, this was just a slight discomfort. The biggest thing that he could use for his inspection was his sword, though.

  "...Whoa."

  Tobio could generally sense that his sword was a radiating mass of chakra, glintstone, and other magical energy that he couldn't properly discern before. But with his eyes alight, he could see the crystalline yers of glintstone that ran through his zanpakuto. The various mechanisms through which it could inherently be used to swing crescent waves of blue fire at his foes.

  And more curiously, something that was resting deeper inside of it. A nested feature, maybe, or something else, that seemed to be resting inside the sword.

  Now wasn't the time and pce to start doing a full-scale investigation on his sword, though. He'd spent enough time in the bathroom, getting his new abilities situated. Tobio was still coming to grips with his new sensing abilities in general. For now, though…

  He really did pity anyone trying to ambush Team Eleven from here out.

  "Did you have a nice meditation on the porcein throne?" Hibachi asked, smirking Tobio's way as he entered back into the room they were posted up in.

  "Of course," Tobio smirked back. "Really meditated hard, if you know what I mean."

  Ami, of course, could only look at the two of them with the most disgusted expression that she could conjure. "...You two are disgusting."

  Tekuno snorted at her words. "If you think this is bad, you should have seen us during the war. A bunch of shinobi, cooped up in trenches and bunkers, shooting the shit and smelling like sweat and the wilderness."

  "Wait, we smell?" Ami blurted out, looking a little mortified. Tobio noticed, but it was something that he'd just gotten used to.

  "I'd be more shocked if you didn't," Tekuno pointed out. "Honestly, it isn't a huge deal. We'll see about getting you guys cleaned up before the next stage."

  "We've still got a few days, don't we?" Hibachi asked.

  Tekuno-sensei nodded. "A few days to rest up, during which you'll be sequestered away from the other teams. Mostly to prevent any sabotage. You wouldn't believe how tricksy teams can get, when promotions are on the line. Foreign and domestic teams, to be clear."

  "I don't think any of our teams would do that to us," Tobio pointed out, even if he didn't entirely believe those words. Kabuto's presence showed that their own erstwhile allies couldn't entirely be trusted.

  "Better safe than sorry, as far as the proctors are concerned," their sensei shrugged. "Still, for now, it's best you guys rest up. Get some sleep where you don't have to watch your back."

  True enough, Tobio was a lot more tired than he would have thought. But the wear of being in an environment where you at least always had to be on edge saw the novelty evaporate quickly. Now though, he could just begin the process of decompressing.

  …It felt good.

  "If anyone needs me, I'm gonna be taking a nap," he commented, finding a nice spot in the room, and haphazardly rolling out his bedroll.

  "...Just like that?" Ami asked, a little shocked.

  "I'm always serious about napping, Ami."

  "Honestly, if you're napping, I'm probably going to join you," Hibachi admitted, already pulling out his own bedroll. "Ain't like I've got any special preparations to make, and we might as well take the time to rest."

  "I'm more shocked the two of you can rex at a time like this," Ami admitted.

  Hibachi scoffed. "What would even be the point of worrying about the next stage? At this point, either we'll pass or we won't. Either way, it's out of our hands."

  "You're not even going to try and fight?"

  "If I'm fighting you, maybe, or someone like, I dunno, Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino…" He trailed off, shrugging softly. "Normal people, y'know? If you try to make me fight Tobio, I'm surrendering on the spot."

  "Smart," Tobio agreed.

  "As humble as ever," Hibachi sighed, shaking his head slowly. "This is just a test. I can always retake it ter, and if we're being honest, it isn't worth staking our lives over."

  "Hibachi's right," Tekuno-sensei chimed in. "It'd be one thing if this were an important field mission, where the reputation and wealth of the vilge as a whole were at stake. But I'd rather have the three of you fail here, and live to take it another day, than die in the duels to come."

  Once again, Tobio was reminded of how lucky he was to end up with Tekuno. He'd assumed that nearly every Jōnin had some kind of dysfunction from what he'd seen of them in the manga and anime, but apparently that wasn't the case. The other teams, save Team Guy, just had bum sensei who couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag.

  Was that rude? Maybe, but he didn't think his progress would have been nearly as rapid if Kakashi had been his Jōnin-sensei. His life likely would have been very different across the board, honestly.

  With those words said, the three kids settled in to rest for the st several days they had before the next stage of the exams. Tobio already knew what was coming up, but he kept mum about it, painfully paranoid about possible ears in the walls. Beyond eating, sleeping, and resting up, none of Team Eleven did anything too arduous during the wait.

  And before no time at all, they were being quietly ushered toward the next stage of the exam.